Idiomatic sentences Spanish-English. Charlie, your teacher of English # 1
¿Por qué llama/cuál es la razón de su llamada/a qué se debe su llamada?: what is your
call about? I want to know what your call is about.
Cueste lo que cueste: at all costs, at any cost (regardless of the difficulty or cost; no
matter what. I intend to have that car at all costs. Mary was going to get that job at any
cost.)
Tener un hijo con...: to have a child with sb (He married a girl he met while we were still
together and had a child with her)
No descartar ninguna posibilidad: to keep one's options open
No perder a calma: to keep one's temper (to hold back an expression of anger. <>The
opposite of lose one's temper.: She should have learned to keep her temper when she
was a child. Sally got thrown off the team because she couldn't hold her temper.)
Aguantar el peso de: to support the weight of sth <> also to support a man's weight (In
traditional masonry construction, walls supported the weight of floors and roofs)
Infectarse de : to become infected (Ryan White was a young boy who had hemophilia and
became infected with HIV through blood transfusions)
No tener margen de maniobra: to have no room for maneuver: I have no room for
maneuver, no freedom of speech or thought or action. My human rights have been
breached)
Permitirser correr riesgos: to afford to take any risks (You can't afford to take any risks,'
urged Graf, thinking of his investment)
Tiempo transcurrido: elapsed time (The measured duration of an event)
Inventarse una historia: to invent/fabricate a story (I began to question whether or not
he fabricated the story that he told me.)
Convertir los deseos en realidad: to turn one's wishes into reality (Becoming an Au-pair
is one of the best way to turn my wishes into reality.)
Poner un pie en (un país): to set foot in (a country (Kafka had never set foot in America
in the entirety of his life.)
Seguir/obedecer las órdenes dadas por..: to follow the orders given by...(Students are
obliged to follow the orders given by lecturers.)

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